Heretofore, as the above type of joint connector, there has been known one disclosed in the following Patent Document 1. This connector comprises a joint terminal and a connector housing holding the joint terminal.
The joint terminal is to mutually short-circuit a plurality of wire-side terminals each provided on an end of each of a plurality of electric wires, integrally having a plurality of electric contact portions and a connection portion. The electric contact portions are arranged in a specific direction, and connected to each other through the connection portion. Each of the electric contact portions allows the wire-side terminal to make contact with the electric contact portion, the contact letting all of the wire-side terminals be mutually short-circuited through the joint terminal.
In the connector housing, there is formed a plurality of flexible support pieces. Each of the flexible support pieces extends inwardly from an inner surface of an outer wall of the connector housing to function as a terminal locking piece for locking an associated one of the wire-side terminals at a position where the associated wire-side terminal contacts one of the electric contact portions.
However, the above conventional joint connector has a problem in its inspection. Reliable mutual short-circuit of a plurality of electric wires by use of the joint connector requires an inspection of an insertion state of the wire-side terminals in the connector housing of the joint connector; however, the joint terminal of the joint connector is located at a deepmost position of an internal space of the contact housing, which makes it non-easy to determine, from outside the connector, whether each of the wire-side terminals is inserted to reach a position to be fully fitted with the joint terminal.
For the purpose of the determination, there has been performed providing a so-called “retainer” to the connector housing. This retainer is attached to the connector housing movably between a temporary locking position to permit an insertion of the wire-side terminal into the connector housing and a final locking position to secondarily lock the wire-side terminal completely inserted, not being permitted to displace from the temporary locking position to the final locking position except in a state that the wire-side terminal has been inserted into the connector housing to reach a proper position. The addition of this retainer, however, involves an increase in the number of components of the joint connector and an enlargement of the joint connector.
Patent Document 1: JP UM 4-27588